CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 Introduction to Computers – CIT 120 Sections 001 and 003 John R. North Office: T210 Hours: Monday 12 - 2 PM Tuesday 11 AM – 12 PM Wednesday 11 AM - 2 PM Thursday 11 AM– 12 PM 5:30 – 6:30 PM Friday 12 - 2 PM Phone: 847-543-2507 (24 hour voicemail) Email: jnorth@clcillinois.edu Web site: http://home.clcillinois.edu/bdv603 Blackboard: http://clc.blackboard.com Class Schedule: Section 001 Time MWF 9:00 – 9:50 AM Location T241 003 MWF 2:00 – 2:50 PM T241 Text: Understanding Computers: Today and Tomorrow Comprehensive, 15th Edition, Deborah Morley and Charles S. Parker, Cengage Learning, 2015, ISBN-13: 978-1-285-76727-7 Microsoft Office 2013 Brief, Misty E. Vermaat, Cengage Learning, 2014, ISBN-13: 978-1-28516613-1 Supplies: Flash/Thumb Drive in case you need to do your work somewhere other than at home or make sure you know how to save your work and then email it to yourself or you have some type of cloud storage such as Dropbox or OneDrive. Software Use in the Course: This course uses MS Office 2013 during the lab sessions and for the projects. MS Office 2013 is available on the computers in our CIT labs as well as in T221 and the LRC; it is not available in all other CLC labs. If you are doing your projects at home, it would be best if you can also use MS Office 2013. The AOS and CIT departments have established an Office 365 web site that permits students to download Office 2013 Pro and install it on a maximum of ten devices. You must be running an edition of Windows greater than Windows 7 to install Office 2013 Pro. If you have a Mac running without a Windows 7 or Windows 8 operating system, then you can install only Word, Excel, and PowerPoint from Office 2011. If you have an earlier version of MS Office such as MS Office 2003, 2007, 2010 and do not feel that you have a need to upgrade to acquire Office 2013, you can still do almost all of the requirements for the projects in the MS Office you currently have. You can also use Open Office or Libre Office for almost all the John R. North 1 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 project requirements and, for Mac users, Office 2008, Office 2011, and Office 2016 will work as well but these Mac Office versions do not include MS Access. Most of the project assignments, about 95+ % can be done with Office 2003, Office 2007, Office 2010, Libre Office, and Open Office. Students using Office for the Mac will not be able to do the MS Access projects at home. If you are going to use open source software, please talk to me first. Unless you really have a need for MS Office 2013 at home, I suggest you consider using the MS Office 2013 software available in T221 or in the LRC. Be aware that not all editions of MS Office 2013 have all the components that we use in this course. It is critical that you verify that your MS Office 2013 has the following components - MS Word 2013, MS Excel 2013, MS Access 2013, and MS PowerPoint 2013. The Starter Edition of MS Office 2010 that had been shipped with some new computers has reduced versions of MS Word 2010 and MS Excel 2010 and you will not be able to complete all of the project requirements. If you do not have MS Office 2013 at home or all the components and you need to do the projects at home, you can obtain MS 2013 in several ways. 1. Register on the clcillinois365.onmicrosoft.com Office 365 web site and download Office 2013 Pro. This software will be available to use for up to one year after you stop taking eligible AOS and CIT courses. 2. Buy Office 365 down in bookstore for approximately $80. 3. Register online for Office 365 University at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftoffice-365-university-FX102918415.aspx for $79.99. Options 2 and 3 will let you use the software for 4 years but I believe you can renew it for another 4 years. In addition, options 2 and 3 permit downloads to only two computers rather than the ten computers provided by the Office 365 package. The screen shots shown in the lab discussion documents are from Office 2013 so your use of earlier editions, Mac versions, or open source software will not have the same view. If you are going to use open source software, please let me know before I start grading your projects. Course Objectives: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Understand the function of hardware, software, operating systems, data, procedures and personnel in a business computer system. Demonstrate a familiarity with electronic data processing terminology and concepts. Understand basic systems analysis and design techniques. Understand basic file processing and database concepts. Understand the importance and the use of microcomputers in organizations. Understand and utilize several software applications for data analysis and communications. Understand and apply the electronic research and communication facilities (Internet) of computing. Sources for Course Material: John R. North 2 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 1. Most of the documents will come from links found on Blackboard but a few may come from links on my school web site (http://home.clcillinois.edu/bdv603). Major Topics Information Systems a. Concepts and Terminology b. Components of Business Systems c. Systems Analysis and Design d. Microcomputer and Mainframe Systems 2. Applications a. Electronic research and communications/Internet b. Word Processing/Text editing c. SpreadSheets d. Graphics e. Database Package 1. Student Responsibilities: Attendance: I expect regular attendance and participation in this class and have assigned 90 (almost 10% of the grade) points for attendance and participation. I am more interested in participation than just being in the classroom. Attendance means paying attention or participating, not putting your head down for a nap, texting your friends, listening to your iPod, working on material for another class, or zoning out. If you get an excused absence, you still get half of the points for attendance. Coming in late decreases the number of points you receive for attendance. Some previous students have treated this class as an online class; if you choose to do so, you will lose approximately one letter grade level. A lot of students assume that they do not need to attend classes or put much effort into this class since they think they are already familiar with computers and the material. This is not the case; the IT field is just too extensive and too evolving. The majority of the material on my tests will come from the book so it would be an extremely good idea to read the chapters. A few items on the test will come from the project material. My project requirements are quite explicit so follow them. I will post an example of the project along with notes on how I did the project in a lab discussion document. It would be a good idea to follow these project examples and lab discussions before attempting your projects. About 10% of the material on my tests will come from the classroom discussions, 80% from the book some of which I will cover in class, and 10% from project work in the lab. My project requirements are explained during the lab sessions so if you decide not to attend the lab then there is a high probability that you will get a low grade on your project. I expect you to have read the material for that chapter so you can participate in the class discussion on the chapter material and related items I will introduce. The class is intended to be a discussion class about the material you read from the book, current IT information in the John R. North 3 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 news, and your experiences. This will be a more interesting class if you participate. I will post information technology items that are currently in the news during the class and I will test on these as well as the material covered in the book. Within three days of finishing the discussion of a chapter I expect you to post a chapter summary by creating a thread under the forum for the Chapter Summary found under the Discussion Board link. You will not be able to view other students’ posts until you post your thread. This summary needs to be a minimum of one paragraph with at least five full sentences. The summary can list the important concepts you picked up from the chapter or it can concentrate on a single topic that you thought most important. In either case, the paragraph needs to include how the chapter material applies to you as an individual or how you could use the concepts covered either now or in the future. Each chapter summary is worth 6 points and there are 16 chapters. So, if you chose not to enter these chapter summaries, you will be down another letter grade. Tests must be taken between the dates specified in the test announcement. I do not give make-up tests. If you miss a test, the make-up will be writing a paper. If you make prior arrangements if you will miss a scheduled test you can still get full credit. Without prior arrangements, you can schedule writing a paper as the make-up for the test but you will receive only 70% of the earned grade. The paper making up for the test must be submitted within four days of the test completion date. The final exam, which is a common final given to all students in all CIT120 sections for the semester, will have multiple choice questions taken from the material covered in the Understanding Computers book and from work done on your projects. Outside Reading/Projects: The schedule at the bottom of this document indicates the chapters to be read before attending the class. It is strongly suggested that the student work the questions at the end of the assigned chapters. The authors provide a web site for expanded material as well as online tests to check your understanding of the material - www.cengagebrain.com/ and the link to UC14 CourseMate. The book makes references to additional material to be found on CourseMate. If you bought the loose-leaf edition of the book in the bookstore, then a CourseMate key will be part of the package. Otherwise, the publisher has made CourseMate an additional cost beyond the price of the book. You do get access to a few of their supplements such as the flash cards and a glossary without paying the additional price. Projects are assigned based on material similar to that presented during our class lab sessions and the lab discussion documents. The MS Office book is used for reinforcing what is covered during the lab sessions and the lab discussion documents. About 85% of the material that I cover in the lab discussion documents is covered in the MS Office book. Project due dates are listed on the schedule. A late project will be accepted up to the date when the second next project is due but you only get 70% of the earned points. Projects can be submitted before the date due for grading. I will reply with comments about what is wrong based upon the rubric (see the table at the end of each project) for that project. You can use these comments to improve your work. If you submit the corrected project before the due date, then you can still get all the possible points. You can submit the project as many times as you feel necessary. If you submit it after the due John R. North 4 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 date and before the second next project is due, you will get 70% of the corrected points added to the current total. It would be best if your submitted projects using the Microsoft Office 2013 Suite of tools. The computers in the LRC and the open lab in T221 have Microsoft Office 2013 on them and can be used for the projects. I do not accept paper documents for the projects. Rather, all project documents are sent to me through Blackboard’s assignment manager. You attach the file you want sent to me for the project part in the Projects assignment area. The attachment must have your initials, the project number as the filename, and the correct file suffix. For example, if I were submitting the MS Word document for project 4, it would have jrn_project4.docx as the filename on the attachment. All my comments and your grade will be found in Blackboard’s gradebook for the course. Warning: My project examples are similar to what is specified in the project but they do not use the data values that I assign for the project. If your submission for the project is just a copy of my example project with a few changed items, you will get a 0 for the project. I have had students submit my example project or the output from the lab discussion, sometimes not even changing my name as the author. You only learn if you do the work. There are nine projects due. The following table lists the goals for the projects. The actual details of the project are provided in Blackboard under the Projects button for this course. You must follow the requirements specified in the project descriptions since most of the points come from using specific MS Office techniques. The content of the projects are a vehicle for using the required Office techniques and the content is worth only a few points. Project General Description of Projects' Goals Due Date Points 1 This project is intended to familiarize yourself with the 2/1 50 Blackboard Assignment Manager which is used to submit all the projects. You should create a 5 paragraph description of yourself that includes 1. your educational and career goals 2. your expectations from the course 3. your familiarity with computers 4. jobs you have had 5. and your interests. It also includes data on a form regarding the hardware and software information about a computer in the lab and one that you use. 2 This project utilizes Web searches to collect information 2/8 50 reported in a word processor document. You must choose an information systems topic and you must visit 5 different Web sites and use at least two different search engines. The critical word processing element is defining and using two new paragraph styles. 3 In this project you create a cover letter and a resume using the 2/15 50 guidelines posted in the project description. I expect you to John R. North 5 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 4 5 6 7 8 9 use your imagination in entering information into your cover letter and resume for a job position 15 to 20 years in the future. You need to create a multi-column announcement using clip art and an image file. In addition, you will use text boxes to document your images, footnotes to document your synonyms and apply the readability index for your writing. In this project you create a payment schedule using a spreadsheet with mostly formulas. You only need 4 pieces of data, everything else is a formula or cell reference. Create a more typical spreadsheet with a data table, embedded charts, aggregate functions, an if statement and conditional formatting. Create a simple database consisting of two tables using MS Access. Use data field properties to control data integrity. Establish a relationship between these two tables. Populate the tables with data. Create a form, queries and a report against a multi-table MS Access database Create a presentation using MS PowerPoint that covers how IT is used in your career choice or a hobby. Use shapes, smart art, animations to enhance the presentation. 2/29 50 3/7 50 3/28 50 4/11 40 4/25 40 5/3 50 I will accept these projects early and provide feedback and a grade on any project you submit to me. By early, I mean more than two days before the due date. I assign a point score so you can see the value of correcting the items. You may resubmit the corrected assignment and still receive full credit until the due date. It takes anywhere from hours to several days to get all the students' projects back after the due date has passed. Once the due date for a project has passed, you can resubmit the project with the corrections to regain some of the lost points. I will give you 70% of the corrected points. For example, if you submitted a project and received 25 out of 40 points and then you resubmitted it and you corrected 12 out of the 15 points in error, then you would receive 12 * 0.70 = 8.4 points back towards the points for the project and end up with a 33.4/40 rather than a 25/40. You can continue to resubmit a project for additional points up to the due date for the second next project. I suggest that you take advantage of this. If you turn in a project late, you will receive only 70% of the correct items since I consider you having a 0 for the first submission by the due date. Each project needs to be submitted to me through the Assignment Manager with the document as an attachment. The project document needs to contain your name, project number, the date completed, and in most instances, page numbers. In other words, use page headers and footers for Word and Excel, a form header and footer for Access, and a Title slide for PowerPoint. Projects are graded based on the quality of the document, meeting assigned due dates and following instructions from the project description and shown during the lab session. I use the rubric listed at the bottom of each project as a basis for grading. Please use the rubric to check that you have met all the requirements for the project. John R. North 6 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 Here are several important things to consider. First, not turning in an assigned project drops you almost a half of a grade, so turn in all your projects even if you can't do part of it. Students that have failed my course in the past have been the ones who do not turn in their projects. Second, turn in your projects early since I will provide feedback so you can correct any problems before the actual grade is determined. Students who have earned an A have tended to submit their projects early for comments and then made the corrections. Third, take advantage of resubmitting your work for correction points. This can raise your project grade a full grade level. You can get help from me by sending an Email with the word "Help" in the subject line, a description of where you are stuck, and the work (as an attached file) that you have attempted so far. I usually look at my Email messages twice a day. Some weekends I will not be available since I have family that live out of state and I like to see them once in a while. If you are on the Grayslake campus, you can stop in T221 and the person in the Business Division lab can help you some. You can also check with the Tutoring center in the LRC when the tutors are available. Grading: There are a number of assessments used in the course. Type of Assessment Projects – There are nine projects using MS Office components. The important part of the project is the use of the techniques being taught; the content is minimal and is primarily used as a vehicle to demonstrate the use of the requested techniques. Syllabus Test – This test is used to ensure that you have read the syllabus. It is worth 20 points. It is untimed and can be taken twice. Chapter Summary – For each chapter you need to submit a paragraph that either summarizes the important concepts covered in the chapter or focus on a single concept from the chapter. The paragraph needs to be a minimum of 5 sentences and must include your thoughts on how you use or could use one or more of the concepts covered in the chapter. Chapter Tests – There are four tests covering the material in the chapters. Test 1 will cover chapters 1 thru 4; test 2 will cover chapters 5 thru 8; test 3 will cover chapters 9 thru 12, and test 4 will cover chapters 13 thru 16. Each of these tests consists of 75 questions. The tests are mostly multiple choice with a few True/False questions. There are no fill in the blank questions. You may substitute a paper on an approved IT topic for each of these chapter tests or you may do both, take the test and write the paper, and get the better of the two grades. Common Final – The CIT department uses a common final test for all sections of CIT 120. It consists of 200 multiple choice questions and will be taken on Blackboard in the classroom at the end of the semester. The test is broken into two 100 question tests and must be completed in two hours. Studying for this test is critical since it has an impact on your final grade. Below is the table describing the relationship between overall points for the John R. North 7 Points 430 20 96 300 200 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 course and the points achieved on the common final exam. This is strictly enforced throughout all sections of CIT120. For example, if you receive 58% on the final, the best grade you can receive for the course is a C. Point Total For Class Percentage on the Final Letter Grade Received >= 90% of total points >=70% on final exam A >=80% and < 90% of total points >=60% on final exam B >=70% and < 80% of total points >=50% on final exam C >=60% and < 70% of total points >=40% on final exam D <60% <40% F Participation and Attendance – This means attending the lectures and the labs and participating. 15 weeks @ 6 points per week. Free Points Total 90 4 1140 Since people have different learning styles, you are given a choice about how you will be assessed for the covered material. There are four tests and a final scheduled for the course besides the 9 projects. For each of the four tests, you can substitute a paper but you are required to take the final. The paper must concentrate on some aspect of IT and is usually about a topic picked from my Paper Topics. It is due no later than 11:59 PM the day after the completion date of the test. I will not accept a paper late without previous agreement between the student and me. If you will not complete your paper in time, you will have to take the test or receive a zero. You can do both - take the test and write a paper. You will get credit for the higher score. Choosing the Paper alternative, you will need to Email me as an attachment a well written paper with your name and the test this paper is substituting for in the footer section, a header section with the title of the paper, endnotes showing your references, and the body of the document using Normal paragraph style or No Spacing paragraph style with acceptable margins/indents. The endnotes must make specific references to the source of the material. For example, stating that you found your information via www.yahoo.com is not acceptable. It requires a site and document that I can access. These endnotes do not need to be formal endnotes as required in a research project. I will not accept a cut and paste paper. I will not accept a paper if you have less than two references. I want you to analyze the material and give me your thoughts about it. If you take a small piece of the writing verbatim from one of your sources, you better put quotes around it and give it a reference. Plagiarized papers will receive a 0. A paper substitution for the tests requires around 2 to 3 pages, single-spaced with a minimum of 1200 words. You can choose one of the topics listed in my Paper Topics list or choose your own topic as long as you get it approved by me before starting work on it. I will not grade a paper if it does not have a minimum of 1200 words and/or it does not include at least two references. An email will be sent to you stating that you need to complete the paper and you will lose 15 points. You will get 2 days to return the completed paper. I strongly suggest that you consider the paper alternative to taking the test if you are not a good test taker. When you write a paper, you pick a topic that interests you. This allows you to focus on a narrower subject which facilitates writing a good paper. You also do not have the same time constraint. I do expect well-structured sentences and paragraphs and a document that has John R. North 8 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 been run through spell check. I will not accept distillations of the material from the book. I expect some research done using the Internet or other sources. The paper can be turned in early for my comments. So, once again you can improve your grade by getting early feedback and correcting it before the final grade is assigned to the paper. If you are not sure that your writing style matches my expectations, definitely turn in your paper early so you can get my feedback. Another good source for objective analysis of your paper is the Writing Center in the LRC. I have had a number of students who have used the Writing Center and felt that it improved their writing. There is a syllabus test which covers the content of the syllabus, the project descriptions, and structure of the course. This test is available on Blackboard during the first week and will be due by Saturday, 8/29, at 11:59 PM. It is worth 20 points. Students learn by having to put what was covered into their own words. So, I have included a requirement that you prepare a Chapter Summary for each of the 16 chapters and post it in the Chapter Summary forum for the chapter found under Discussions. For each chapter you need to submit a paragraph that either summarizes the important concepts covered in the chapter or focus on a single concept from the chapter. The paragraph needs to be a minimum of 5 sentences and must include your thoughts on how you use or could use one or more of the concepts covered in the chapter. Each chapter summary is worth up to 6 points. Please see the Rubric for grading chapter summary paragraphs under the Miscellaneous Rubrics item found in the Content link. Please notice that I expect a paragraph that is well thought-out and well written. Take the extra 5 to 10 minutes to do a good job; it is only a single paragraph. Chapter tests will be taken on Blackboard. Check the schedule at the bottom of this document for when the tests will become available and when they must be completed. I suggest taking the test early and then deciding whether you need to write a paper to make up for the poor test grade. No matter when you make your decision to write the paper, it is due by 11:59 PM the day after the date of the test. The Final is a Departmental Common Final for all CIT 120 classes. It will be conducted online (using Blackboard) during the last week of the course. The Final has 200 questions covering all the chapters in the book as well as questions covering MS Office concepts learned during the lab sessions. Since the Final is so important, I strongly suggest that you take the tests even if you are writing the papers as substitutions for the tests. Taking the tests will help prepare you for the Final. I provide two extra credit projects. The first is to give a presentation to the class using your PowerPoint project. This extra credit is up to 40 points. The second is on-going where you can post a link to some news article about Information Technology from online newspapers, magazines, other articles, or websites. This posting is done on Blackboard (clc.blackboard.com) under the Discussion Board menu item and in the extra credit forum that matches the topic of your article. You just add a new thread to the forum with a subject line indicating your topic and your link pasted in the message area. Make sure the link works. You get up to 5 points for each article that you post (as long as it is a reasonable article about computers). It must be to a site that John R. North 9 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 I do not need to register at to view the material. You can get a maximum of 50 points for these news articles. These news article links must be posted throughout the semester. Here is the schedule. Weeks Maximum Points still available 1–4 50 5–8 40 9 – 12 25 13 – 15 15 No extra credit posts accepted after December 15th. Policies: I have had several cases of cheating in my previous CIT120 classes. This includes plagiarism and outright copying. If you decide to write a paper then make sure that any copied material is quoted and given an endnote reference to the source. Do not provide your work to another student. You will receive a zero for that work. Copying another student's work will result in a zero for that project or paper. A second incident of cheating will result in failure of the course. Both giving your work to somebody else to copy and the copying of somebody else's work is considered cheating. Plagiarism is also considered cheating. An incomplete grade, “I”, is normally not an option and will be given only for situations involving serious personal emergency or lengthy personal illness. The student must be working currently at a “C” level or above and must also agree, in writing, to a completion date within 120 days of the end of the semester, 4/16/16. The school has altered its policy on withdrawing from a class. If you plan to discontinue attending your class anytime during the semester, it is strongly recommended that you take responsibility for dropping the class. Grades of W will only be assigned to students who drop themselves. Instructors are required to report noticeable non-attendance of students. If you discontinue attending class and are dropped by the institution, the following grades will be assigned: WN – Withdrawal, student never attended – no impact on g.p.a. WS – Withdrawal of students who stop attending – no impact on g.p.a. WF – Withdrawal of student who stop attending after the official withdrawal deadline (68%) and instructor deems failing - impact on g.p.a. is equivalent to a grade of F. The last date to withdraw and receive refund for the class is 9/9/15 and the last date to withdraw and receive a 'W' for the class is 11/18/15. If you withdraw after that date, you will receive an 'F'. If something comes up that forces you to withdraw after 11/18/15 you can still receive a 'W' from the instructor if you were passing at the time you withdraw and you receive the instructor's permission to withdraw. I expect each student to treat other students and me with respect. This means that when you are replying to another student, you show respect for the other student in the content and tone of the reply. I will remove any content that I do not consider appropriate. John R. North 10 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 If you are a student with a documented disability and may need academic accommodations such as extended time for exams and/or an in-class note taker, please present documentation to the Office for Students with Disabilities in L112 at the Grayslake campus. To schedule an appointment, please call: voice (847) 543-2055 TTY 223-0134 If you have already contacted the Office for Students with Disabilities and have completed the Instructor Notification Form, please schedule a time to meet with me and discuss your needs. John R. North 11 1/4/2016 CIT120 Syllabus – Spring 2016 Proposed Schedule Week Class Reading Lab Reading and Project Assignment Work 1 Ch 1 Office – Email 2 3 4 Ch 1,2 Ch 2, 3 Ch 3, 4 5 6 7 Ch 5 Ch 6 Ch 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Office - Searching Office - Resume Office – Resume, Newsletter Exams and Project due dates Syllabus Test – Covers syllabus & projects Available 1/20 to 1/25 at 11:59 PM Project 1 due by 11:59 PM, 2/1 Project 2 due by 11:59 PM, 2/8 Test 1 - Covers Chapters 1 – 4 Available 2/10 to 2/13 at 11:59 PM Project 3 due by 11:59 PM, 2/15 Office – Newsletter Office - Payment Schedule Office – Payment Schedule Project 4 due by 11:59 PM, 2/29 Functions, Charting Ch 8 Office – Functions, Charting Project 5 due by 11:59 PM, 3/7 Test 2 - Covers Chapters 5 - 8 Available 3/9 to 3/12 at 11:59 PM Ch 9, 10 Office - Access Tables Ch 10, 11 Office – Access Tables Project 6 due by 11:59 PM, 3/28 Ch 11, 12 Office – Form, Queries Ch12,13 Office – Queries, Report Project 7 due by 11:59 PM, 4/11 Test 3 – Covers Chapters 9 - 12 Available 4/13 to 4/16 at 11:59 PM Ch 14 Office - PowerPoint Ch 15,16 Office –PowerPoint Project 8 due by 11:59 PM, 4/25 Ch 16, Review Presentations Project 9 due by 11:59 PM, 5/3 Test 4 – Covers Chapters 13 – 16 Available 5/4 to 5/7 at 11:59 PM Final Exam Departmental Common Final - Covers all chapters, 200 questions 001 – 5/11 8 – 10 AM 002 – 5/9 10 AM - 12 PM 003 – 5/9 2 PM – 4 PM John R. North 12 1/4/2016